Owners urged to contact their authorised dealer to arrange an inspection and free repair.

Brembo fault

Brembo PR16 master cylinder

The recall does not affect brake master cylinders sold as aftermarket kits through Brembo authorised dealers.

The fault is believed to be a crack in the internal piston of the PR16 radial master cylinder.

The crack can result from prolonged and hard use such as track work or frequent use of ABS.

Obviously, if it breaks, not only will braking force be diminished, but owners could also end up wth highly corrosive brake fluid leaking over their bike.

Brembo says the problem is with the plastic (polyphenylene sulphide) they used. To fix it, they will replace the plastic piston with an aluminium piston.

Here is the official notice from Brembo about the fault:

The anisotropy of the piston material, in addition to potential porosity introduced during the injection process, could lead to crack generation and thus potential component failure. The failure may occur with no warning to the rider, although a significant loss in brake effectiveness may be an early indicator.

In May, 2017, Ducati received initial information from the field regarding front brake malfunction involving a motorcycle in the European market. During the same month Ducati received a second European front brake malfunction report.

Ducati initiated an investigation and began to jointly conduct an analysis with Brembo, the component manufacturer. In September, 2017, a third European case was discovered. Failure was found to have occurred during race track use in two of the three cases. In November, 2017, the investigation was finalised and the root cause was identified as above. On December 14th, 2017, Ducati determined that a worldwide safety Recall was justified. For subject motorcycles sold in the US, there have been no reports of injuries due to the defect.